The Book of Lost Souls

by Michelle Muto

  Ivy looked away from her friends, not wanting to catch their eyes or see the sympathy in them.

  Gareth ran a hand along the edge of the table, careful not to touch the books. “But, he’s been gone for so long. No one has been able to find him, not even a trace. If he was using the books—”

  “Gareth!” Raven hissed in warning.

  “I’m just saying that maybe everyone’s got it wrong. Maybe Ivy’s dad is part of some secret Kindred organization.”

  “You watch too many spy movies, Gareth,” Raven said, slugging her brother in the chest. “Her dad is long gone, he’s rogue. There isn’t some stupid secret organization. Someone here, in Northwick, is behind this. So just shut the hell up, okay?”

  “But, who? It isn’t like there’s a bunch of secrets in this town,” Gareth protested. “Well, aside from Uncle Lucas’s bone fetish. And even then, I bet a lot of people knew about that and just never said anything. I mean, the whole town’s population is barely a few thousand.”

  “Maybe it’s a Regular,” Bane said.

  Shayde looked puzzled. “Why would a Regular bury spell books?”

  “They might if they were afraid,” Ivy said. “If they didn’t trust—”

  “The Moray effect,” Raven cut in. “So, it could have been a regular.”

  Gareth slid off the coffin, fidgeting with his iPod. “Amore defect? I don’t get it.”

  “Pay attention! It’s Moray, moron!” Raven rolled her eyes. “As in how lobsters hang out with Moray eels, which keep other predators away. Don’t you ever listen to Mom and Dad’s conversations when they think we’re not listening?”

  Gareth seemed more puzzled than ever.

  Shayde seemed complacent enough to explain. “The Regulars think Northwick has stayed a small town and has had virtually no crime because of the high number of Kindreds living here. So, they ignore that we’re Kindred, and we don’t eat them or use them in place of eye of newt.”

  Bane clapped a hand on Gareth’s shoulder. “We’re the Moray and they’re the lobsters. Hence, the Moray effect.”

  “Why does everyone else know this stuff?” Gareth asked.

  “Don’t you ever wonder why there are so many graves in the old section? Haven’t you ever read the dates on some of them? I swear, don’t you ever notice these things?” Raven asked her brother sarcastically.

  Gareth simply shook his head. “Uh, nooo. They’re dead.”

  “Northwick had its own version of the Civil War,” Bane said. “The Regulars hunted down Kindreds in an attempt to exterminate anyone supernatural. We fought back. Long story short, there was a treaty. We protect them, they keep us a secret.”

  “We’re all a secret as long as they feel safe. As long as they feel safe from us. But, if one of them knew where the books were, they’d go to any lengths to keep them away from all Kindreds,” Ivy said. She thought Bane did a pretty good job of summing things up. There was a lot more to it. For starters, how the townsfolk didn’t care much for strangers, and somehow, the synergy between Regulars and Kindreds in Northwick kept the majority of strangers away. It was why a small New England town was the perfect place for anyone supernatural to live completely undetected from the outside world.

  “Cool,” Gareth said. “Is that why we don’t drink from the living?” he asked Raven. “A treaty?”

  Raven put her mug aside, and strode over to where Ivy sat and picked up the book on magic gardening. “You’re fourteen, Gareth. Sort of. So, technically, you aren’t old enough to drink from the living, even if there weren’t such a treaty.”

  “Oh, yeah. I forgot. No underage drinking before I turn two hundred or something equally moronic,” Gareth said.

  Raven ignored her brother as she paged through the book. “I don’t see what’s so evil about gardening. Why was this book with the others?”

  Ivy frowned. She’d wondered the same thing. “No idea.”

  Bane shrugged. “Anyone new in town? Anyone acting weird?”

  “Like out of character weird?” Gareth snickered. “Besides Ivy? Oh, Spike? Where for art thou, Spike?”

  “That’s almost funny, coming from a vampire who drinks blood from cadavers,” Ivy retorted. “I think you forgot to check for formaldehyde.”

  Gareth gave her a halfhearted glare. He started to say something, but a horn honked outside.

  “Play nice, kiddies,” Bane said. “Gotta go, my ride’s here.” He snagged his duffle bag from the parlor floor. “Sure you don’t want to step outside, Ives? Dean’s here.”

  She glowered at him, trying to appear hateful. But inside, she felt panicked. She tossed her jacket onto the table to conceal the books.

  The door to the parlor opened and Dean, Tara, and a couple of the football players walked in. Tara, naturally, entered first. Some of the guys hung back, closer to the door. The funeral home probably gave the little creeps the creeps, Ivy thought.

  “Hi Shayde, Raven... Ivy.” Tara strutted in, wearing tight-fitting pants and a cashmere sweater.

  Of course, her hair and makeup were perfect as always. It was sickening, really.

  “Returning to the scene, Ivy? Looking for another suitable date? Dig anything up?”

  “Just your gravesite, Tara. Nice and shallow, just like you,” Ivy retaliated.

  Ivy caught the slightest glimpse of a smile from Dean.

  Tara glared at her, then spun on her boot heel. “Lizard breath,” she murmured.

  Ivy stepped forward, ready to turn Tara into a slug, and Shayde grabbed her arm. “So not worth it, Ivy. You’re in enough trouble.”

  “Are you guys coming?” Tara huffed at the team members. “By the way, Ivy, your socks don’t match.” She stormed out the door and suddenly tripped over the threshold. She stumbled for a brief second, then regained her composure.

  Shayde looked at Ivy questioningly.

  “What?” Ivy whispered. She hadn’t done anything.

  Dean glanced over his shoulder and winked as he and the others left. Ivy watched him leave, her heart pounding happily.

  “Ivy!” Shayde accused.

  “What?” she repeated, suddenly feeling like she’d been reeled in from fantasyland.

  “Did you make her trip?” Raven asked. “Pretty slick.”

  Ivy shook her head. “I didn’t, I swear.”

  “Did I miss something?” Nick Marcelli asked with a glint in his eye. Ivy never saw him come in, but figured he’d been part of the group hanging back at the door. He looked good in his black hiking boots and black jacket. Nick glanced at Ivy’s mug sitting on an end table. “Mmm. Hot chocolate.” He took a sip and winked at Ivy. “Delicious. Worth the trip over here for that alone.”

  Everyone eyed Nick suspiciously.

  “Did you see Tara’s ballerina act?” Ivy asked.

  Nick shrugged. “Yeah, I saw her. She just left with her poser of a boyfriend. What about her and a ballerina act?”

  “She lost her balance,” Ivy said. “You didn’t see that?”

  “Hmmm. No. What happened? Someone deflate her boobs, or her ego?” He tapped his forehead. “I forgot. They’re one and the same.”

  Shayde, Raven, and Gareth burst into laughter.

  Ivy wanted to smile and the corners of her mouth broke into a grin before she tamped it down. “How long have you been here, Nick?”

  “Not long.”

  “Why are you here?” Ivy pushed her mug away. She remembered the way he’d stared at her last night. He probably wanted to know why she’d thought so badly of him, turning him down only to create her own date. She couldn’t blame him. Well, except for one thing—why was he talking to her at all?

  “I left something here last night. Came back to get it, that’s all.” He wandered over to the coat rack and removed the hat he’d worn from one of the hooks. He bumped the table and Ivy’s jacket as he walked past, revealing the edge of one of the books.

  “I was just going,” Ivy said, rushing forward to scoop up the books and her jacket.
<
br />   Nick was faster. He blocked Ivy’s path. She tried to reach around him, but he lifted her jacket and stared at the books. The Rise of the Dark Curse sat on top. Nick’s jaw hung slightly ajar. He reached for it, then quickly withdrew his hand. He frowned and spun around to face her.

  She could have been mistaken, but for a second, recognition flashed in Nick’s eyes.

  He knows about the book!

  Ivy arched an eyebrow at him.

  Nick mustered an uneasy smile, and Nick was never nervous. “Hey, did you ever find Spike or is he still terrorizing the insect population?”

  Gareth sighed. “No. He’s out there, lost, homeless. We should go find him. What if he eats a poisoned bug? I’m really worried.”

  “He’s still missing, and he’s still dressed like Romeo,” Ivy said. “And how did you know?”

  “Everyone knows. You’re not...” he looked at the books.

  “No!” Ivy snapped. This is where everything got worse. Nick would tell someone he saw her with the books. “Those aren’t mine. I found them. Today.”

  Nick’s lip twitched, turning into a smile. “I meant, you’re really not a lizard lover like everyone says, are you?”

  “Go to hell, Marcelli.”

  “I’m not that kind of demon.” He nodded toward the books again. “We’re cool, okay?”

  Ivy glanced between him and the books. She didn’t believe him. “Then what kind of demon are you? Seems you happen to be wherever things go wrong.”

  “You made Tara trip,” Shayde said, grinning. “Way to go, Nick!”

  Nick feigned an expression of hurt and surprise, but the dark glitter in his eyes didn’t fool Ivy. “Moi?”

  Shayde leaned closer to Raven and whispered in her ear. Raven laughed softly, and the girls hurried from the room, dragging an unsuspecting Gareth with them. “Hey!” he protested to no avail. Their laughter faded, and Ivy heard the click of a door closing.

  “What kind of demon am I?” Nick drew his eyes away from the stack of books to meet Ivy’s stare. “I’m the kind of demon who is going to help you get rid of your scaly reputation. You keep turning me down. Come on, Ivy. How about going for some pizza at Saludo’s? What do you say? Think you’re up to a real date?”

  “What do you know about the books?” Ivy asked.

  Nick picked them both up, studied them briefly and set them back down. “I don’t know a thing about the gardening book. But this one.” He tapped The Rise of the Dark Curse. “I know more than you, lizard lover. If you can handle it, maybe I’ll tell you.”

  Nick’s playful expression changed to something more serious. “Now about that pizza. After a hard day working in the cemetery, a girl’s gotta eat. We’ll talk about your favorite subject. Books.”

  Ivy sighed. Maybe Nick could prove helpful yet. “Fine. Pizza’s good. And yeah, I can more than handle it.”

  Nick grinned. “I bet you can. I’ll pick you up at six.” He gave Ivy a half-smile and motioned to the books. “You didn’t by chance find another book, did you?”

  Oh, yeah. He knew all right.

  “No, it seems to be missing. What do you know about it?”

  Nick shook his head and sighed as though this bit of information wasn’t what he’d hoped to hear. “Leave the gardening book at home. Bring the other one. And whatever you do, tell the rest of the group to keep quiet. Tell no one else.”

  Ivy nodded. How much did Nick know? Did any of it have to do with her father? Her dad and Mr. Marcelli knew each other very well. They had been friends, actually. She hated that Nick was so hard to read. She hated all the mystery and rumors surrounding him. It was nearly impossible to know where she stood with people like that. People like her dad.

  Asking her to bring the book on a date seemed like an odd request. Had she been wrong in her belief it had been discarded? Maybe Nick had gone to take the books himself and startled someone else. If Nick had any part in the missing book, then she needed to stay clear of him. If he knew how to use any of the spells in The Rise of the Dark Curse he was probably the most dangerous person she knew. But, despite her mistrust of him, she didn’t really want to believe Nick would be part of something so dark. Maybe this was another case of wrong place, wrong time. Sure, maybe he startled the person in the cemetery. Or, maybe he knew about all this some other way. Just what was his part in all this? She supposed she could wait to hear what Nick had to say before turning the books over to her mother.

  She watched Nick as he drove away in his black Mustang GT.

  “So,” Shayde said, entering the parlor. “You finally listened to me. You’ve got a date with Nick.”

  “Eavesdropping again, Shayde?” Ivy asked without turning around. Nick made a left onto the main road. The Mustang’s tires chirped against the asphalt and within a few seconds, he was gone.

  Shayde tried her best to appear innocent. “Ivy, I was with Raven and Gareth. We went into the other viewing room. You can’t hear anything from there.”

  “Right,” Ivy said. “I know you.”

  “Okay, I might have overheard some things,” Shayde said. “Nick could help undo the damage you caused to your reputation by dating Spike. He likes you, Ivy. You’d have to be blind not to notice.”

  “Uh, huh. Well, he knows about the books. You did hear that part, right?”

  Shayde frowned. “Yeah, I heard. But seriously, how much could he really know? That happened a long time ago. He was just as young as the rest of us. And, honestly, I couldn’t hear everything. Gareth kept asking too many questions about the Moray thing.”

  Ivy shook her head. “It was the way he looked at the books. Other than a witch or wizard studying black magic, who else would know about The Rise of the Dark Curse besides a demon?”

  “Think he’ll say anything about you having them?”

  “That’s what I intend to find out,” Ivy said.

  CHAPTER 8

  Before they’d taken a single step into Saludo’s, Ivy knew it was a bad idea. Saludo’s was the local pizza hangout between Maple Avenue and Hill Street and like every Saturday night, it was pretty busy. After last night’s fiasco, the place was crammed with students sharing their version of what had happened.

  Saludo’s decor hadn’t strayed much from the forty-year-old photos that hung in black frames on the walls: brown brick front, vinyl flooring, paneled walls, Formica tables with plastic checkered tablecloths, and large picture windows across the front and side facing the corner sidewalk.

  Four tables opened at once and were promptly cleared, so the wait didn’t turn out to be as nearly as long as she thought. Ivy heard the occasional whispering and laughing as their waitress seated them at a booth near the front window. A few students nudged their friends. Nick hadn’t been kidding about everyone knowing she’d turned Gareth’s pet lizard into a date for the Halloween party. If they only knew that she was carrying one of Skinner’s books, they’d all look at her differently. She’d taken care to put the mismatched dust jacket back on it and had carefully ticked it into her book bag. Ivy shifted the book bag to her other hand, carrying it low, and hopefully not in the line of everyone’s sight.

  Just act casual.

  Ivy pulled her book bag up against her and tried not to pay attention to the sixty or so sets of eyes staring at her.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Nick said, plucking a couple of laminated menus from between the napkin holder and glass shakers of seasoning and parmesan cheese. “I’ve got a plan.”

  Nick gave her his most wicked smile. Ivy thought she’d had enough of schemes and excitement over the past twenty-four hours, but the constant stares and giggles were enough to make her game to at least hearing Nick out.

  “First, what do you want on your pizza?” Nick asked.

  Ivy shrugged. “Pepperoni’s good.”

  “Perfect.” Nick ordered a medium pepperoni pizza with extra cheese and two drinks. The waitress finished scribbling down their order and hurried off, promising to come right back with their sod
as.

  “Is it in there?” Nick asked, nodding toward the book bag at her side.

  “I brought both books, yeah.”

  “I’m only interested in the one. The Rise of the Dark Curse. I have no idea why the other one was with it. It means nothing.” Nick studied her with those dark, mysterious eyes of his.

  Ivy forced herself to stop fidgeting. Other than Nick, no one here knew she had the book. What if he stood up and said something right here, right now? “Since you know so much, then what’s the deal with the The Rise of the Dark Curse?”

  Nick gave her a long, curious look. “You don’t know, do you? You mean to tell me you never knew about the books? Your dad never told you why he and my father wanted them? What they did and all?”

  Ivy said nothing. Her father had left without a goodbye, much less an explanation. She only knew that Helen Skinner, a half-witch, half-demon, was undeniably the darkest Kindred ever to set foot in Northwick. She knew Skinner had written a few books containing black magic. After the fire and her dad’s disappearance, the Council had questioned both her and her mother extensively. But no one ever told her anything. Not what the books were called and not what they did. Until now, she’d been just fine with that.

  “You really don’t know. Interesting.” Nick surveyed her a second longer, then sighed. “Okay, well, it’s like you suspected. The books are pure black magic. No surprise there. If you haven’t already looked, it’s supposedly filled with a lot of really nasty spells and curses. Anything from causing various forms of insanity to flesh rot. There’s a chapter on turning people into major-league plague-carriers, a curse that puts someone in a near death state, and I think there’s another one that makes the victim have an insatiable craving for toxic substances. You know, like antifreeze and triple A batteries. Mmm. Tasty.”

  Ivy had paged through the book. She hadn’t gone through the whole thing, because the book freaked her out and she kept dropping it every time one of those tendrils of smoke drifted out. She didn’t know anything about curses containing flesh rot, although she had seen the one with the rats and another that Nick hadn’t mentioned—a curse designed to make the intended victim pull out their teeth and fingernails. After reading that one, she’d set the book aside and took a shower to scrub her skin from the cold, tingling sensation it’d left on her. She had vowed to never open that horrible book again. Not that she didn’t want to. She did. It had been hard not to go through it again before tucking into the book bag. It had been as though the book had called to her. Beckoned her. Had it called to her father, too?