She watched the old man spit and then buff the crystal in his hand as though he was trying to wipe out a stain on an old shoe. Maybe Mr. Patterson was a clairvoyant when he was away from the bookstore. That would explain the odd times when he would shuffle around the store, mumbling about top news reports before they were released to the public. He always seemed to know more than he let on, especially when it came to her future. He had known about her acceptance to Dawson College’s Art program even before she had opened the letter.
“Do you want me to help you polish those when I’m done with this stack of books?” Kara gestured to the remaining pile of books on her metal trolley. “I don’t mind, really.”
Mr. Patterson didn’t even look up. “No thank you, dear. You know I don’t allow anyone near my crystals.”
“I know, but I thought I could help . . .”
“It’s quite all right, dear. Only the hands of a true seer can manipulate the essence of the crystals.” Mr. Patterson examined his crystal more closely. “There is a unique bond between a crystal and its handler—one cannot see into it without the special eye—so to speak.”
Kara sighed and shook her head. She’d gotten used to Mr. Patterson speaking in riddles. Most of the time she had no idea what he was talking about, so she would nod her head and pretend that she did just to keep him happy. Maybe one day he would trust her enough to handle at least one of his precious crystals. She wondered how they would feel against her palm.
Having placed the rest of the old books in the classic novel section, Kara hauled the metal trolley to the back of the store.
“Clara,” called Mr. Patterson from behind the counter, still eyeing his precious crystals. “Would you mind putting the closed sign on the front door? It’s almost five o’clock.”
“Sure, Mr. Patterson.” Kara parked the trolley and crossed the store. A wooden sign with the word open painted in white hung from the top of the front door by a single string. She flipped it over so that the word closed was now visible against the door’s glass window.
Clink.
“Oh dear!” screeched Mr. Patterson.
Kara turned around. Mr. Patterson stood with his arms in the air and a panicked look on his face as a crystal ball bounced off the counter and rolled across the floor towards Kara. It sparkled as it rolled slowly towards her. She reached down . . .
“No!”
Kara picked up the crystal ball. She peered closer and noticed a light inside, as though a light switch had turned on. Suddenly, a series of images flashed in her mind’s eye. She saw herself fighting a man with black eyes and white skin. Next she stood in an elevator with a large and angry chimpanzee pointing a finger at her. Then she stood in a large round chamber with a glass dome, in front of her a group of men and women dressed in robes sitting around a half-moon desk. The image changed—now she was covered in wisps of golden current. And then she stood before a massive creature with rotting flesh and gangly sinuous arms. It opened its maw . . .
“I’ll take that, thank you.” Mr. Patterson took the crystal from Kara’s hand and walked away hurriedly.
Kara stood frozen as the images in her head blurred and then disappeared all together. Frowning, she tried to make sense of what she has seen, but the images wouldn’t come—she couldn’t remember. It was like when she’d wake up from a dream, and seconds later couldn’t remember what the dream had been about. With every passing second, the images vanished from her mind entirely, until there was nothing left to remember.
“What just happened?” she asked, looking around the bookstore. “My head feels funny.”
“Nothing dear. You were just locking up, that is all.” Mr. Patterson shuffled back towards the counter and placed his crystal ball into the glass compartment. He locked it with the key that hung from around his neck and started to wipe down the counter with an old multicolored rag.
“I was?” Kara stood in the middle of the room with her hands held out in front of her, feeling a little light headed. She sighed and dropped her hands. “Great, I’m losing my mind . . .”
“Of course not,” said Mr. Patterson. “You’re just a little tired, that is all.”
The wind chime sang as the front door flew open.
“Sorry, we’re closed—” Kara’s heart shot into her throat.
David sauntered into the store. His blue eyes flashed dangerously. “Hey, Kara. I thought you might still be here. Feel like going for a bite to eat?”
Kara bit down on her tongue to stop the smile that threatened to creep onto her face.
“Sure, I was just locking up.”
“Great.” David smiled, and she quickly looked away. The blood rushed to her face, and she was afraid he could hear her heart beating through her chest.
David stroked his finger along a row of books. “I thought we could catch the seven o’clock show at the Cineplex afterwards...if you don’t have any other plans...”
A smile broke onto Kara’s face as her heart pounded in her ears. “I don’t have any plans tonight. A movie sounds great.” She caught David smiling at her and she looked away.
She inspected herself discreetly. Her jeans were covered in grime—not exactly an appropriate date outfit. Normally, she would have gone home to change, but she wouldn’t dare say so now, in case she jinxed their second date. Besides, David didn’t seem to notice.
“See you tomorrow, Mr. Patterson,” called Kara.
She ignored the butterflies fluttering in her stomach and made her way towards the front door. David beamed at her with a playful glint in his eye. Kara dug her nails into her palm. Even if this was only their second date, she felt more nervous this time around.
Mr. Patterson looked up from the counter and smiled. “Enjoy yourselves. I’ll see you tomorrow, Kara, bright and early.”
Kara closed the door behind her and followed David across the street. Although her nerves still prickled inside her, she allowed herself to relax a little and to enjoy walking next to David. She felt a sense of comfort and trust with him—not to mention a persistent feeling of having known him before, as though they had somehow met before in another life. Whatever force pulled them together, Kara surrendered herself to it gladly.
As she reached the sidewalk on the other side of the street, a sudden feeling of being watched came over her. She looked over her shoulder. Mr. Patterson stood by the front door of his shop. After measuring her for a moment, he smiled and waved. Kara waved back, wondering why he was watching them so intensely. Maybe he was being overly protective of her, although she didn’t know why. She felt safe with David. With a smile on her face, she turned and followed David down the street.
As she got to the end of the block, a short man with wispy white hair and a beard waddled up the sidewalk towards the bookstore. He clutched a small crystal orb and was barefoot. He hopped over the cracks in the pavement as though it was a game of hopscotch. His blue shorts and colorful shirt flapped in the air, and with a last hop he landed in front of the door. His bony knees cracked as he stood up straight. He glanced at Mr. Patterson and grinned.
“Hello, Jim.”
“Good evening, Sam. Ready to punch out?”
“Five o’clock sharp, as usual.” With his hands on his hips, they both turned around and looked down the block. “She’s one of a kind, that Clara.”
“Indeed.” Mr. Patterson stroked his beard with his grubby little fingers. “She is truly in a class of her own—a real fighter that one, a pure soul—pity we can’t use her as a guardian anymore; I’m rather very fond of her. In fact, she occupies a special place in my heart.”
Tucking in his beard, Sam crossed his arms over his chest. “You know, Jim, I was thinkingwe could use her talents again. She did save Horizon and the mortal world. She is quite unique—there is no other angel like her.”
“I agree.” Mr. Patterson nodded his head. “Such extraordinary talent and bravery—it is very rare. It would be a great shame to waste her tremendous abilities.”
“
Yes, a great shame.”
“Indeed.” Mr. Patterson watched as Kara and David disappeared around a corner.
“Perhaps we shall call on her again. What do you say?”
“Perhaps we might, Sam. Perhaps we might.”
“Perhaps we should discuss her future with the legion at the next High Council meeting. What do you think, Jim?”
Mr. Patterson raised his eyebrows. “That we shall, Sam. That we shall.”
Sam tossed his crystal ball in the air and caught it easily. “Well now, I must be off. There’s a mix-up with identical twins at Orientation—seems as if we took the wrong one. I’ll see you later, Jim.”
“See you on the other side, Sam.”
Sam stepped through the threshold of the bookstore, clutched his crystal ball, and vanished.
Mr. Patterson smiled. “See you soon, Kara Nightingale.”
And now a sneak peek at the next book in the Soul Guardians series
MORTAL
Chapter 1
Curfew
Kara sat on the edge of the bed and watched as beads of sweat glistened on her mother’s forehead. She hoped the fever had reached its peak. She leaned forward and pressed a cool cloth over her mother’s forehead. Her skin was pasty and sickly—grey, like a day—old corpse. Her lips twitched in her uneasy sleep, but she didn’t wake up. Kara watched her mother slipping away, and she feared the worst. Her eyes stung and tears rolled freely down her face.
“It’s just the flu virus,” the doctors had said, “nothing to do but rest and wait it out.”
They had pushed Kara and her mother out of the local clinic and locked the doors behind them.
That was three weeks ago, and her mother was getting worse.
It wasn’t just a normal flu virus, Kara was certain of that. Her mother hadn’t woken this morning, and it was now early in the night—it was almost as though she were in a coma. Whatever it was, she could see her mother was struggling against it. Something was definitely wrong.
A pale sliver of light poked through a gap in the curtains, and her mother’s pale face glowed white in the darkness. The small room was lit dimly by the single tiffany lamp that sat on the bedside table. Like all the rest of the furniture in the apartment, it had belonged to her grandmother. Kara took comfort from their familiarity. She reached out and clasped her mother’s hand—it was ice cold.
She wiped the tears from her face and glanced out the window.
Snow brushed gently against the glass. The heavy darkness outside sucked all the happiness out of her. The winds intensified and drummed along to her heart’s rhythm. She felt like she was having an anxiety attack. She let out a long shaky breath as she tried to calm herself. Gently, she let go of her mother’s hand.
She picked up her cell phone on the wooden bedside table.
No new calls.
The cell phone felt unnaturally heavy in her hand, like a bucket of paint. She placed it back on the small table, before it slipped from her sweaty fingers. She felt uneasy.
David was the closest thing she had to a family, beside her mother, and she needed him with her now. But where was he? It wasn’t like him not to return her calls. Had he gotten sick, too? Kara fought to control the panic that rose in her chest and wiped her clammy palms on her jeans.
But what if something else entirely had gotten to David?
Goosebumps pebbled her skin as black shapes haunted her again. Darkness had always seemed to follow her, and as time had worn on, she had begun to see more and more unexplainable things, just as her mother had done. Kara saw creatures from nightmares creep from the shadows. More than once she had the distinct impression that foul beings, not of this world, had tried to attack her on her way home from her night classes. She had never shared her fears with David; she was sure he’d think she was crazy. But she knew that whatever abnormalities her mother suffered from had been passed on to her. It was in her blood. And she wouldn’t risk losing David’s friendship by telling him she could see monsters.
Kara sighed and turned her attention back to her mother. Her face was contorted in pain, and then she started to shake. A lump formed in Kara’s throat. She had to do something. The least she could do was find something to help relieve the pain; she couldn’t just sit and watch her mother suffer. There was a twenty—four hour drugstore two blocks away.
She rose from the bed—something passed over her mother’s face like a shadow.
Bright green markings appeared along her mother’s forehead and the side of her face like glowing tattoos. They were like words, but Kara couldn’t make sense of them. What were they? She had never heard of a virus that caused markings on the skin. What was happening? She leaned closer for a better look—
Knock. Knock!
With her heart in her throat, Kara whirled around and strained to listen. The sound had come from the apartment’s front door.
David! Thank God!
Kara sprinted into the hallway and made her way to the front door.
Two police officers stood on the threshold.
The woman was a head taller than Kara. She had cold calculating eyes and the pinched expression of a schoolteacher about to scold. Her long black hair was pulled back into a ponytail behind her navy—blue cap. She clutched a stack of papers and a note pad importantly.
Her partner looked like a linebacker, ready to charge. Nearly as thick as he was tall, his muscular shoulders bulged under his navy—blue patrol uniform.
Snow melted off their black polished boots and left a watery trail down the hallway.
Kara exhaled when she realized she was still holding her breath and forced a smile. “Can I help you?”
She hoped they couldn’t hear the disappointment in her voice.
The woman’s brown eyes sparkled, and she smiled at Kara. “My name is Officer Norman, and this is Officer Baker. Are your parents home?”
She looked over Kara’s shoulder.
Kara studied the police officers’ faces for a moment before answering. “Yes. But it’s just me and my mom.”
“Can we speak to her?” asked Officer Norman.
Kara felt tightness in her throat. “Uh...no. She’s not well, you see. She’s...she’s...sick.” Her voice cracked. She saw fear flash in officer Norman’s eyes, for just a second, long enough to see it.
“What is it that you want?”
Officer Norman scribbled something on her notepad, and then she looked up. “We’re patrolling the neighborhoods tonight. Making sure everything’s in order.”
Kara shifted her weight. She didn’t like the way they were staring at her.
“Why are you patrolling the neighborhoods? Is there something wrong?”
The two officers exchanged a look.
“What’s going on?”
Officer Baker looked familiar to Kara, but she couldn’t recall where she had seen him before. Was he a bus driver?
“We’re asking everyone to stay inside. We need to know where you are, and that you are safe, ma’am.”
Kara didn’t like the sound of this at all.
“Why do you need to know where I am? Is this a curfew...seriously? It’s the common cold! I doubt a curfew is going to solve anything. Is there something else you’re not telling me?”
From their edgy expressions, she got the unmistakable feeling that something more was going on.
“We just want to avoid more people getting sick, that’s all,” said Officer Baker.
His voice was hoarse as though he had never used it before. He measured Kara from under his cap, and she could see the tightness around his mouth. His aftershave was so strong that she thought he must have applied it to cover up some other nasty odor. She forced herself not to grimace.
“In the meantime,” he continued, “you stay home and look after your mother. They’ll find a cure and then things will get back to normal.”
A cure? What were they not telling her?
The glowing symbols on her mother’s forehead weren’t normal. Somethin
g was terribly wrong.
Kara’s fingernails dug into her palms. “My mother’s in pain, she needs medication. I just need to step out for a few minutes and go to the drugstore—”
“You’re not going anywhere tonight.” Officer Baker pointed a large finger at Kara. “You understand me, kid? Don’t think of doing anything stupid. Nobody out after seven o’clock. Those are the rules.”
Kara’s lips trembled. Nobody called her stupid— and she didn’t care for rules. As her temper rose, so did her voice. “But my mother needs help. I’m going to get her some meds—”
“No you’re not. There’s nothing you can do to help her now. You stay put, you hear me?” said Officer Baker.
Kara glowered at them. She felt her hatred rise from the top of her head like steam from a pot. “Fine. Whatever. Officers.”
Officer Norman shared a sidelong glance with her partner before turning back to Kara.
“Good, so we’re clear. We have to keep moving, we have a lot of ground to cover tonight. Lock the door once we’re gone—”
Kara slammed the door in their faces. She didn’t need to be told twice. She wasn’t even sure that they were real police officers. She waited until she heard the sound of their heavy boots tapering away before she kicked the door with her foot. She felt nauseated, but she knew what she had to do.
Kara dashed across the hallway and made her way towards the living room’s large bay window. She peered through the plastic white horizontal blinds, her nose inches from the glass. Below, the streets were covered in blankets of white. Street lamps cast tiny yellow lights that sparkled in the snow. Headlights illuminated the street for a second, and Kara saw a black cat scurry under a parked car. Two shapes emerged from below, and she watched them make their way towards the next building to her left. She smiled when they disappeared inside.
Seirs, Soul Guardians Book 5 Page 17