Castella left her obelisk to me? I didn’t know how to process that. And just as confusing was why she’d leave Marcus behind after he’d gruesomely murdered Alex. Maybe she felt like there was nothing else she could do about the passing of her son.
“Well, if Castella isn’t going to help us,” I said, “then we can’t confront Marcus on our on. Let Vár come and take his life or do whatever she wants with him. What do we care?”
Lyle pulled out his phone and flicked nonchalantly through a few screens. “I think you’re right. We should leave that four-leaf clover kisser to himself and forget about him. Will he come after us? Maybe, but there’s no way he’ll catch up to us if we drop everything and go. And as far as he knows, you don’t have Castella’s obelisk, so there’s nothing in it for him. He lost at his own little game. There’s no way he’ll be able to find another æther summoner before tonight. I don’t care about three wishes, or whatever it is he grants. I just want this all to be behind us.”
I gave Lyle a grave look and hurried to the bedroom and started packing, cramming clothes into a black duffel bag, not caring whether or not they were wrinkled. I threw my brush and comb into my bag, along with several changes of socks and underwear. My make-up bag wasn’t a necessity, but I wasn’t sure how long I needed to skip town, so I tossed it into the duffel bag as well.
“We’re really doing this?” Lyle said with a smile. “Let me run home and pack, and I’ll be right back.”
Before Lyle made it out of the bedroom, my phone rang. It was a weak chime, since the speakers had been damaged by the water, so when it sounded, the ringing seemed to fade out before it finished. It was Boyd. “Hello?”
Heavy, exasperated breathing came through on his end of the phone. “Hey, babe…looks like they got me.”
“Who is it?” Lyle mouthed, holding onto the threshold.
“Boyd,” I mouthed back. “Who got you?” I asked Boyd. “What are you talking about? Where are you?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Some guy. Says you know’em.” His words ran together, clogged in his throat. It sounded like he’d swallowed a mouthful of blood. “Says some guy named Daniel told him what you did to Stephanie, or something like that.” He made a feeble chuckle. “What do I know…right?”
Daniel? The Wraith must have never left my apartment like I assumed he had. He’d been invisible the whole time. He’d seen what I did to Stephanie, and had probably left before she came to. I switched the phone to speakerphone. “Are you okay? Tell me where you are.”
“Where am I…where am I?” He must have been looking around to get his bearings. Not able to figure it out, Boyd said, “Hey, guy…where in god’s name are we?”
“Yonkers Road,” I heard Marcus say not far off. “Tell her to make her way over, if she wants to see you again.”
A solid thud came through on the other end, and Boyd fell into a violent coughing fit, so fierce that he was rendered wheezing at the end. Being Boyd, he broke into a grunted laugh, stunted by more wheezing.
“A boot in the ribs…” Boyd said, “haven’t seen that before.” More laughs came from his side of the phone, followed by another spine-chilling thud. There was no laughter this time.
After an extended rustling sound, like the phone was changing hands, Marcus came through loud and clear on the speakerphone. “There’s a warehouse just before the beltline over on Yonkers. Ye’d be wise to meet us here by seven or so.”
The phone went dead. I locked it, and tucked it away. “He got Boyd.” My voice was low and stale.
Lyle’s jaw clenched, and I couldn’t tell if it was because of how he felt about Boyd or not, but when he got up, his storm-cloud gray eyes almost seemed to be burning. “We’re gonna’ go talk to Umara first, then we’re going to find that Leprechaun and shove his four-leaf clover where the sun don’t shine.”
Chapter
TWENTY-FOUR
By the time we arrived at Umara’s place, it was barely five thirty in the evening. I’d taken the time Lyle and I had in car together to fill him in on Marcus’s plan to release Vár into the world to punish liars and those with covenant-breakers in their bloodlines.
Lyle warned me of the danger we could be in if we allowed that to happen – like I wasn’t already aware of that. I didn’t like the idea of being roped to Marcus by a threat on Boyd’s life, and it didn’t help that we wouldn’t have Stephanie or Castella to count on when we encountered him. I just hoped Carter would come through. I sent him a text before we left, but I hadn’t heard back.
When Umara came to the door, she wasn’t wearing the crisp white lab coat. Instead, she wore a gray and white horizontally striped sweater with blue jeans. Her fluffy blond-streaked hair curled in a wide puff about her head.
“Come inside,” she gestured us in. “It’s freezing out there, and I’m already paying a fortune just to keep the heat running in this place.” We walked briskly behind her in the lavishly decorated hallways while she chattered on about the changes she was planning to make around her home. “Can’t believe I’m adding another chandelier, especially since I’m the only one living here. It’s not like I have guests here on a regular basis.”
Umara led us into a den, down the hallway and to the left. The room was probably the smallest that I’d seen. A plush cream carpet draped the floor with two onyx sofas sitting across from one another. Sunlight, if there was any on a gloomy overcast day like today, would have beamed in from the slanted glass roof overhead that Umara swore she enjoyed opening on some of the warmer days.
She took her seat and crossed her leg over the other, offering us to have a seat on the opposite sofa. I sat down and the leather was already warm, which must have made me make a face, because Umara said, “They’re heated. I keep them running just in case the casual visitor makes her way over…unannounced.”
There was no smile on her golden face to smooth that last comment over.
“I would offer the both of you a cup of English tea, but I fear that I’m all out,” she said. “It’s been a span of a few days since I filled my cabinets, but guaranteed, English tea is number one on the grocery list.”
She kicked her leg, still holding her knee with both hands. “I’m sure the two of you came by for more reasons than to have me prattle on about what grocery items I lack. So please, tell me, why is it that you have come to see me?” She showed the side of her face, playfully looking at us from the corner of her eye. “Is it because you’ve no doubt heeded my advice and decided not to confront Marcus?”
Lyle sucked in a breath between his teeth. “Not exactly. Actually, the opposite of what you just said; that’s what we’ve decided.”
Umara’s leg stopped kicking. “I see. And what is your reasoning for this, if you don’t mind me asking? Because as I understand it, once the ritual to extend one’s life is commenced, if the goddess is not summoned in time, then the person who initiated the ritual will be viewed as an oath breaker of the highest kind by Vár. Certainly Marcus cannot have but perhaps a day or so left before the end of the ritual. So why do you feel compelled to go to him?”
That confirmed what we suspected – that the goddess would not let him live if he failed, which meant that he couldn’t go out and find another summoner to conjure her. He needed me, and he needed me tonight, if he wanted to live. I leaned forward, placed my elbows on my knees, slowly rubbing my palms together. “Marcus took my boyfriend, Boyd. He’s got him trapped in a warehouse somewhere off Yonkers Road.”
“Your boyfriend?” Umara said. “Your boyfriend? Not your husband. Not your mother. Not your father, not even Lyle, for Pete’s sake. But your boyfriend. Tell me, Rebekah, is this the same boyfriend who thinks you’re out carousing as a sorority girl, the same boyfriend whom you so politely advised me that I should back away from, even though I’ve never met him?”
I could see that she wasn’t interested in an answer.
“We’re talking about Marcus here.” Umara slapped herself on the knee. “Your boyfriend is as goo
d as dead. Don’t think for one minute that Marcus has even considered letting him go free. Would you like to know how I know? Because Marcus leaves no evidence behind, and your boyfriend is nothing to Marcus, except evidence. Evidence and bait. And it looks like he’s hooked you at the end of his line.”
“Are you saying that I should leave Boyd with Marcus? That I should just leave him to die?” I sat back into the sofa, tapping my fingers on the armrest.
“You don’t have a chance,” Umara said. “If you go down to that warehouse, Marcus will keep Boyd alive long enough for you to summon Vár, then he’ll kill him. That’s how Marcus is. It’s the very reason I don’t deal with him. He doesn’t have a conscience. He doesn’t care whom he bulldozes on his way to the top. He’s as dangerous as a copperhead, and if you go after him, you’ll soon find out why.”
I shut my eyes, letting the knots in my stomach untangle, allowing my mind to clear. This wasn’t what I expected. I’d come to know Umara to be the compassionate one, thinking of people first before protocols came into play. But if I listened to her, Boyd didn’t have a chance. “What if Lyle and I confront Marcus, and we stop him? Then what? Boyd doesn’t have to die. Vár doesn’t have to be released.”
“It’s possible,” Umara replied. “But I wouldn’t bet on it, and if I did, my money would be on the Leprechaun. He’s thought this through, inside and out. You can’t win, and this is coming from me.” She touched both her hands to her chest. “I’m a glass-is-half-full kinda’ girl. You’ve got nothing to lose if you don’t show up tonight. Nothing.”
Except Boyd.
Lyle leaned forward, elbows on his knees. He rolled his tongue in this cheek for a second, then said, “Say we do go. Can you at least tell Rebekah how to access the æther? Anything you can give us would go a long way.”
Umara kicked her foot a few times, still holding her knee with both hands, shifting her eyes from Lyle then to me. “No.”
That struck me hard. How could she deny me what little she did know about æther? “No?” I repeated, eyes shuttering.
“You heard me correctly,” she replied. “I can’t and I won’t tell you what I know about æther, because what little I do know is still only enough to get you killed. If I tell you what I know, then you’ll presume to be more prepared to face Marcus than you truly are. And when things go ill for the two of you – which they will – you’ll wonder how you could have better prepared yourselves. Just know that what you’re walking into is a trap, if you choose to go.”
Her voice wavered in the end, a slight thread of emotion behind the iron wall she’d thrown up. Deep within her, she knew we were risking our lives.
She didn’t speak another word, except to see us to the door, a frown quickly revealing itself on her lips just before we left the house.
“Rebekah,” she called.
I turned back to her.
Umara held the door open, staring at Lyle and me who were now on her porch. “I’ll tell you this,” she said. “From what I’ve learned about æther, it’s not like the other summons. You don’t command it. And the moment you try, that’s when it takes control.” She dropped her head, bid us goodbye, then shut the door.
“Well that was a complete waste of time,” Lyle said, descending the steps of the porch.
“I noticed,” I replied. “I can’t listen to Umara on this one. I have to go to Boyd.”
“I know,” Lyle replied. “Just know that wherever you go, I’m right behind you.”
The gray clouds hung in the sky above, and ever so often a chilled breeze coasted by, making me draw up to keep myself warm. I pulled my brass zipper of my olive parka up to my chin. My beige jeans and black boots did little to ward off the cold.
On our way back to Lyle’s car, I had to get off my chest what was on my mind. “Lyle…”
“Yeah, Rebekah?”
“What made you tell Boyd to break up with me?”
He pursed his lips and looked out to the road where cars blazed by. “Guess you figured it was me after finding out it wasn’t Umara, huh? Because of situations like this. I’ve been a lot of places in my lifetime. Haiti, for one, but you weren’t awake long enough the other night to hear that story. I’ve been to Oklahoma, Maine, El Salvador, London, Venice, Paris, and a host of others. Paranormals aren’t much different, no matter where you go. When they want something, they take it, because there isn’t anyone who can stop them.”
“So you talked to Boyd, told him to break up with me, then told him to lie to me by saying that he randomly ran into Umara at the Pale Ale? Guess Vár’s going to after you too.” I smiled and elbowed him.
“It’s not the first lie I’ve ever told. And if we make it out of this, it won’t be my last,” he confessed.
“Oh, really?” I grinned up at him. “A do-gooder like you must be awful at telling lies.”
In a serious and weighty reply, he said, “…I lie to you everyday.”
That dampened my lightheartedness, and I hurried in front of him to stand by the passenger’s side door “Please don’t interfere with my relationship with Boyd again.”
Chapter
TWENTY-FIVE
I’m not an idiot. I’ve always had a hunch that Lyle was into me. The long stares, the open availability whenever I call or text him, the flowers in the hospital. It all adds up after a while.
The only one I want is Boyd. I have to say that I’m a little nervous about tonight though – not just because of the psycho Leprechaun factor, but also because Boyd will be seeing me in all my glory – something he’s never even known about me. And if he can make it through this, then he and I might have a future together.
Seven o’clock came sooner than it should have. It was like time soared by for this very moment. Lyle and I rolled up on one of the warehouses on Yonkers Road. I had to call Boyd to see which one exactly.
I’d thought about calling the police, but that would have just made Marcus mad, and he might have killed Boyd out of spite – something that I couldn’t handle.
On the phone, Marcus had sounded pleasantly surprised when I told him that I’d managed to get Castella’s obelisk. That was when he divulged to me that he’d held onto a spare obelisk just in case, though he knew that Castella’s was far better. I didn’t mention to him how Umara had inspected Castella’s obelisk and reluctantly commented that Vár might fit, so Marcus’s spare would have ended up being useless.
When we arrived at the warehouse, night had fully fallen. I peered at the building from inside Lyle’s car. Dull yellow streetlights beset the warehouse, offering hardly any light at all. The name of the company that had once owned the place had, at one time, been hoisted above the main entrance in white letters. Now, most of the letters were missing, leaving only a remnant of its existence on the weathered bricks underneath.
Docking bays lined the far left of the building, a place where transfer trucks had probably dropped off their shipments on a frequent basis. All that remained were piles of chains in uneven mounds. Several wooden pallets had been thrown in the mix, most of them rotting and broken.
“Where do you think we should enter?” I asked Lyle.
The car engine rumbled off when he pulled the key from the ignition. “Guess we can look around. He should be expecting us. As quiet as it is out here, I’d be surprised if he didn’t hear us pull up.”
We got out of the car, bundled up, zipping up our coats when the wind hit us as we made our way to the rear docking bay. Every footfall on the cracked concrete seemed to echo for miles and back, and I was having trouble not letting my books crunch on the rocks underfoot.
Lyle and I figured that the rusted stairs by the docking bay was a good place to start, so we climbed the steps and knocked on the solid metal door to the receiving bay.
“Maybe we should try the other side,” I said, when no one came to the door.
Just as Lyle began back down the steps, the metal door whined open. I expected to see an entourage of paranormals, but only Marcus appe
ared in the doorway. I wondered if he’d come alone, because of what Stephanie had told me – that Marcus didn’t want other paranormals to catch onto his secret for long life.
“Good evening to ye,” he said, gesturing us inside.
Despite the purpose for my visit, Marcus hadn’t missed a beat with his fashion. A sleek black sport coat covered a light blue collared shirt with the top two buttons open, navy slacks tying his apparel together.
“Let’s get this over with,” Lyle said.
I shoved past Marcus. “First, I want to make sure Boyd’s okay.”
“Oh, missy, I assure ya’ that the lad’s more than taken care of. But if it suits yer fancy, I’ll take you to him.”
Marcus escorted us past rusted empty metal shelves that extended from the floor to the ceiling, most of which had been bolted to the floor for stability. Some of the bolts had come undone or were stripped bare where someone had attempted to unscrew the bolts to no avail.
The three of us walked into a wide-open area that must have been where the warehouse had received its shipments. A waist-level counter notched into the wall to the right of the sliding vertical doors of the docking bays, and Marcus had set up three or four high-bay lamps to light the open area – all of which had been connected to handheld generators for power, each of the generators making a loud grinding rumble.
Near the counter, Boyd lay on his side, hands bound behind his back.
“Boyd…” I hurried over to him, knelt beside him, caressed the side of his face, kissed his forehead. The taste of copper was on my lips. When I touched my finger to my mouth, I realized that Boyd had still been bleeding, and the blood was fresh. Marcus hasn’t stopped hitting him since the last I spoke with him.
“Might not…want to kiss me…right now,” Boyd grunted.
His words had a faint whistle behind them. That was when I realized that one of his top teeth had gone missing. My heart broke for him. I couldn’t stop stroking his cheek. I couldn’t help but believe that this was my fault, that I should have heeded Boyd’s words that night at dinner – that I was too dangerous for him. Who cared whether Umara had told him or whether it was Lyle? I should have listened. I should have backed away before this….
Seize the Soul: Confessions of a Summoner Book 1 Page 19