by Mary Lindsey
The name alone was scary. I put on my best game face in an attempt to appear unconcerned in front of Maddi and Race. But fear surged through me like ungrounded current. Maddi and Race stopped what they were doing and stared at me. Alden closed his eyes.
“Intense, isn’t it?” Alden remarked.
“Wow. How often does she do that?” Race asked.
“All the time.” Alden’s eyes were still closed.
Maddi laughed and punched him on the shoulder. “No wonder you haven’t finished your paperwork.”
“How often do I do what?” I asked.
The three Protectors laughed. Alden zipped up his computer bag and glanced at his watch. “We’ve got to go. Thanks for helping us out. I’ll call you tomorrow after the meeting. They probably just want to see her and make sure she’s intact. It takes a formal session to sentence a Speaker to be discontinued.”
“Or a Protector, for that matter,” Race added. “Keep it together, Alden. Inform, protect, serve, no matter how much fear she throws at you.”
After hugs and handshakes, Maddi and Race got in a blue Dodge Ram pickup truck, leaving me alone with Alden, who was politely holding my car door open.
“You should have told me we were in trouble, Alden.”
After he pulled out onto the service road, he glanced over at me. “You weren’t ready. If I had told you about the ICDC, you would have taken off. I’m not one hundred percent sure you’re on board even now.”
“Well, I am on board, Alden. And if we’re going to be a team, you can’t keep secrets from me.”
“Deal,” he said as he pulled into a day-care facility. Not the average day care—a huge, elegant exclusive one. He parked under the covered pick-up area. Immediately, a woman escorted a little girl with bouncing blond curls out to the car. Alden got out and walked around the front of the car to meet them. The little girl ran into his arms as he opened the door. He picked her up and twirled her around before setting her in the booster seat in the back of his car.
Alden spoke with the woman briefly before turning his attention to the little girl, who was grinning hugely at me.
“Izzy, this is Lenzi. Lenzi, this is my little sister, Elizabeth.”
Alden got in the driver’s seat and waited patiently for Elizabeth to buckle her seat belt. “Do you want help, Izzy?”
“No! Charlotte says I’m a big girl and I don’t need boys to do stuff for me.”
Alden rolled his eyes. “Charlotte says a lot of things. Miss Mason told me that you’re upsetting the other kids by talking about Charlotte too much. You need to tone it down, Izzy.”
“Miss Mason is just jealous ’cause she doesn’t have a friend like Charlotte.”
Alden sighed. “Buckle up so we can go.”
“Who is Charlotte?” I asked.
“My bestest friend in the whoooole world,” Elizabeth volunteered from the backseat while she wrestled with the seat belt.
Alden reached back and helped her buckle up. “Charlotte is Izzy’s imaginary friend.”
“She’s not ’maginary. She’s real!”
Alden winked at me and started the car. “Izzy, you’re going to play with Miss Aurora until Dad gets home, okay?”
“I want to play with Lenzi!” she said, grinning.
“Yeah, well, so do I, so you can play with her tomorrow. Where’s Boo Bear?”
She dug through her backpack and produced a tattered pink bear. “Here!”
“Good afternoon, Boo Bear. How was your day?” Alden asked, glancing briefly in his rearview mirror.
“He doesn’t want to talk to you, Alden. He wants to talk to Lenzi.”
“Hello, Boo. Where did you get your name?” I asked.
“He got it from Alden,” Izzy said, kissing the pink bear’s nose. “Alden says Boo Bear can scare the ghosts away.”
I smiled. “Maybe you’ll let me borrow him sometime. Boo’s talent could come in handy.”
I watched Alden while Izzy chattered from the backseat. He had his arm on the console between us. In my mind, I took his hand in mine. Before my imagination could explore a wider range of possibilities, Alden pulled into the driveway of his house. He escorted Izzy to the door and turned her over to a pleasant-looking woman in her mid-fifties with graying black hair pulled back into a bun. She waved at me from the doorway.
“Where to now?” I asked when we were back on the road.
He smiled. “I hate to ask you to cheat on your boyfriend, Zak, but I believe you have a date with a purple cat named Jinx.”
SEVENTEEN
Alden pulled into a preschool with a sweeping circular drive and aqua columns decorated with zoo animals on either side of the front door.
My phone chirped to let me know I’d received a new text as he parked the car.
He unbuckled. “Let’s go find out where Mr. Jinx is.” As Alden walked around to open my door, I read Zak’s message asking if he could pick me up from where I was studying. A chill ran through me at the prospect of Zak discovering I was with Alden. I really couldn’t keep this up much longer. Being with Zak was not going to work. He’d never accept or understand this ghost-hunting gig.
I’ll call you when I’m free, I texted. We need to talk.
Alden, still holding my door open, cleared his throat. “Let’s get to work now.
“Just like the hospital, the school will have privacy rules,” Alden whispered as we entered the office. The receptionist was nowhere to be seen. As Alden unfolded Suzanne’s picture, a heavyset woman bustled in from an office nearby.
She immediately teared up when she saw the drawing. “Suzanne was a favorite of everyone here. Mr. Jinx was a fixture of the school,” she said.
But even after Alden turned on all his considerable charm, she said she couldn’t give out any information regarding students or their addresses. Luck was on our side, though, because the school nurse passed through as we were being given this disappointing news. She was wearing blue hospital scrubs with rainbows all over them. She paused when she noticed the drawing on the receptionist’s desk.
“That’s Mr. Jinx,” she said with a wistful smile. “She drew him all the time.”
“Yeah, I promised Suzanne Lawrence I’d give this drawing to her mother,” Alden explained, giving the nurse his most charming smile.
“I could mail it for you,” she suggested.
“It was very important to Suzanne we deliver it in person. I promised her we would. I also told her I’d pet Fluffy for her and tell Becky where Mr. Jinx is. She hid him so that he wouldn’t have to go to the hospital with her the last time. Mr. Jinx was scared of needles.”
“We’re not allowed to give out addresses,” she said, glancing at the receptionist. “Why don’t you give me your number, and I’ll contact the family for you? Come into my office, and I’ll take your information.”
We followed the nurse into her office. She pulled a file out of a gray metal cabinet and placed it on her desk, open to the first page. She pulled out a pad and got a pencil. “What is your phone number?” she asked loud enough for the receptionist in the next room to hear as she wrote down the address from the file. Alden matched her volume as he recited his phone number while she finished copying the address and handed it to him.
He put his hand on hers. “Thank you,” he whispered.
We walked out of the office and, once outside the doors, practically ran to the car. Making it through the parking lot without touching Alden was a true test of willpower. It seemed like I was becoming more and more aware of him. There really was a link between us that was beyond normal—a link from centuries of knowing each other.
“I can’t believe we got it!” I said as we closed the car doors. I read the address scribbled on the piece of paper. “I know right where this is. It’s behind the neighborhood pool around the corner where I used to take swimming lessons when I was little. Turn right out of the parking lot.”
The house looked just like Suzanne had described it—one-story brown bri
ck with black shutters and a bright red door.
“You should do this alone,” Alden said, parking at the curb. “Mothers of dead children respond better to women. She’d probably close the door in my face.”
“Come with me. Please, Alden. I’m scared.”
“No, you’re not.” He passed me the drawing.
The soul-feeling thing was a pain. “Okay. I’m nervous. Please come with me. I need you there with me.”
He shot me a skeptical look. “You are not experiencing a trace of fear or nervousness. All I feel from you is excitement. Go take care of this. You can do it.”
Something in me needed to be with him. “Please, Alden. Share this experience with me.”
He sighed and opened the door. “I’ve never been able to say no to you.”
Suzanne’s mother was far more receptive than I’d expected. I told her that we’d met Suzanne in the hospital while we were there visiting a friend. Before fifteen minutes were up, we’d fulfilled both of our promises to Suzanne. Becky was on the floor playing with Mr. Jinx when we left.
Back at the car, I was elated. This was what I was put on earth to do—help souls find closure. Happiness buzzed through my body.
Alden put his head back against the headrest and closed his eyes without pulling out his key.
I snapped my seat belt. “Is something wrong?”
“Shhh. No. Give me a minute.”
Something was definitely wrong. “Was it something I said or did?”
After some deep breaths, he opened his eyes and pulled out his key. “No, Lenzi. You were wonderful. Magnificent. Congratulations on your very first closure.”
“Why were you acting weird just now?”
“I’ve never felt you like this. Closure in the past resulted in happiness that bordered on gloating—the thrill of success. This was different. You were transmitting joy.”
“That’s a good thing, right?”
A big grin crossed his face. “Even better than the fear.” He started the car. “Are you hungry?”
“Starving. Do you like French food? There’s a bistro around the corner.”
The restaurant had rustic French decor complete with a fireplace, which suited me just fine because I was still in my short uniform skirt and the October wind was chilly. The high from helping Suzanne hadn’t worn off yet, and I chatted nonstop through dinner while Alden’s eyes kept straying to my legs, which I intentionally kept visible. I’d decided to see if I could make him see me in the same light as Rose. Maybe I wasn’t the smart, tough, kick-ass woman Rose was, but I was here now. Although my knowledge of men was minimal, from Alden’s behavior I guessed that I was on the right track.
I took a bite of quiche and made a series of pleats in my napkin. “Tell me about Rose, Alden.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “What do you want to know?”
“Tell me about when you were married to her.” I put my feet up on the empty chair next to him and turned the napkin ninety degrees and repeated the pleats.
He glanced at my legs, then at his bowl of soup. “What do you want to know about it?”
“What was it like?” I folded a corner of the napkin in on the diagonal.
His reticence surprised me. For a minute, I thought he wasn’t going to answer. “The job was much easier when you . . . she and I lived under the same roof.”
I rotated the napkin and folded another corner over. “Did you get married because you loved each other?”
My phone chirped in my purse, and Alden looked directly into my eyes. “Rose married me because it was convenient. Will you excuse me for a moment?” He seemed agitated as he strode to the bathroom. Maybe I’d struck a raw nerve. Convenience seemed like a lame reason to marry someone. He wasn’t telling me the whole story.
Zak’s message was hostile. He accused me of, well, doing exactly what I was doing: hanging out with Alden and lying to him about it. I didn’t respond other than to turn the volume off on my phone.
Alden sat back down, let out a deep breath, and took a sip of his coffee. “Lenzi, thank you for stopping the pills.”
How did he know? Was it the linked-soul thing? “Um, Alden, did you feel high when I was?”
Taking my hands in his, he smiled. “No. Your soul just seemed out of focus. Not right. It’s like hearing my favorite song played by a marginal cover band. I like the song. I just prefer the real thing.” He squeezed my hands and leaned closer. “I’m glad you are giving being a Speaker a chance. I’m proud of you.”
Our faces were only inches apart across the small table. I was sure he was going to kiss me. Instead, he sighed, released my hands, and leaned back in his chair.
“Okay, where do you want to take on that Hindered who was complaining about the stolen property?”
Back to business. I flattened the napkin on the table and smoothed out the pleats. “I don’t care. Where do you want to do it?”
“My little sister will drive us crazy at my house. Will your mom leave us alone at yours?”
“Mom has some deadline at her office and won’t be home until after ten o’clock. She said if I’m not home when she gets there, she’ll ground me, so we’re better off there.”
He stood and slipped into his coat. “Perfect. That gives us plenty of time.”
EIGHTEEN
I made Alden stay downstairs by telling him I needed to change clothes, but I really wanted to straighten my room before he came up. I slipped on some jeans and a tight, red cashmere sweater I thought he’d like before scrambling around shoving things under the bed and into drawers. His room looked like an antique showroom, and mine resembled a Dumpster. Rose was probably perfect and tidy.
“Do you need help?” he called up the stairs. “It’s taking you a long time to change clothes. It’s not a prom, you know—it’s a resolution.”
“Come on up,” I said as I stuffed a pile of clean clothes in my closet.
He sat on my bed. “Ready?”
“Yeah. Let’s get this resolution over with.” I sat next to him. “Why is this one worth more points?”
“Because restitution is usually more complicated. Call the Hindered. We have to close this one before the meeting tomorrow—which reminds me, we have to be in Galveston by noon. What will it take to get your mother to call you in sick?”
My mom had already made an excuse for me this week. “It would take my death.”
“We’re trying to avoid that.” He pulled out his wallet and removed a slip of paper. “How about a doctor’s note?” He scribbled on it with a pen from my desk. “I’ll pick you up at ten o’clock. Bring a change of clothes if you don’t want to wear the uniform.” He placed the note in my hand. It was an appointment slip to a doctor I’d never heard of.
“It’s an IC front,” he explained. “They actually have someone who poses as a front desk receptionist at a doctor’s office to cover in situations where Speakers and Protectors have to miss work or school.”
“So, this is a super-secret society, this ghost-busting business?”
He slipped his wallet back into his jeans. “As much as possible. If it got out as general knowledge, it might cause panic because ghosts tend to freak people out. We share our existence with people on a need-to-know basis. Like, there may come a time when your mom or your boyfriend needs to know, but the fewer, the better.”
“Yeah, I can understand that.” I stuffed the note in my pocket, wondering what Zak’s reaction would be if I told him I could talk to bogeymen. “Zak’s not my boyfriend anymore, Alden.”
His strange silver eyes met mine, and I felt as if frozen in place. “Your soul is troubled by that.”
“I haven’t really talked to him about it yet.”
“Well, that would certainly trouble a soul.” He shrugged and a hint of a smile touched his lips. “Call the Hindered, Lenzi.”
I wasn’t as nervous as I’d been with Suzanne, but I was anxious to get the ghost stuff over with so we could be alone. I gave Alden a big smile and then cupped
my hands around my mouth. “Here, Hindered, Hindered, Hindered. Come out, come out, wherever you are!” I called.
I was immediately flooded with voices calling for help from all around me. They were everywhere, and the voices were so loud it hurt my ears. I staggered backward off the bed and slid to the floor.
Alden laughed. “I bet that got their attention. You won’t do that again, huh?”
“What do I do now?”
“You’ll have to seek out the one you want, specifically.” He sat on the floor next to me. “It’s okay. I should’ve warned you.” He took my hand and started the soothing thing. “Go ahead. Call it.”
“They’re so loud, I can’t even hear myself think.” I got on my knees and sat back on my heels, still clutching his hand. “Okay, ghouls, everyone quiet down. I want to talk to the woman who hassled me in history class and got me busted. She wanted me to help her with something someone stole. Everyone else, scram to some other happy haunting ground!”
“She stole my mother’s necklace!” The voice was behind Alden’s shoulder.
“Who stole your mother’s necklace?” I asked.
“My sister.”
“Her sister jacked her mother’s necklace,” I explained to Alden.
“Why is that significant enough to keep her Earth-bound?” he prompted.
“What’s the big deal about that? Why is that keeping you here?”
The voice came from behind me, which made me flinch. I’d never get used to this. “I promised my mother on her deathbed that I would keep it in the family. It had been passed down for three generations. My sister is childless. I have a daughter. My mother left it to me in her will, but Karen stole it from her house the day of the funeral. She has it. I’ve seen it.”
I squeezed Alden’s hand. “Did you catch that?”
“No. I only hear them when my soul is in your body. What did she say?”
“Her sister stole it. I’ll fill you in on motive later.”
“Don’t go to any trouble on my account,” Alden said, chuckling. “Is she haunting the sister?”