Split at the Seams

by Yolanda Sfetsos

  “You’re welcome.” She hadn’t taken her eyes off Jonathan. “I don’t think you should be hanging around that guy.”

  “Oh yeah, why?” Since the first night Burr Okell had introduced Jonathan as the hunters’ new healer, she’d kept her distance from him.

  “He’s obviously a possessive jerk.” Lavie leaned closer and lowered her voice. “And he’s also some kind of demon.”

  What the hell? “Did you just say demon?”

  “Uh-huh. And not the good kind, either.”

  I opened my mouth to ask more, but Burr appeared out of nowhere.

  He wasn’t there one minute, and the next was struggling up the last step to the landing. “Ah, we’re all here before midnight…excellent.” He was an unusual-looking man, obese with a sickly sheen to his skin that made him appear almost waxy. He was always sweating too. And loved riddles more than direct answers. “Good night to you all!”

  A chorus of greetings sounded around me. I couldn’t bring myself to answer either way. I was secretly hoping this meeting would be over quickly. After Lavie’s revelation, I couldn’t wait to ask her more.

  I also wanted to corner Burr afterward. If anyone could answer my questions about Mara’s condition, I had a feeling he could. After all, he belonged to the Tailor Watchdogs, an organization responsible for making sure all the patches stayed where they were supposed to, tightly stitched in place. It was how I’d met all of these people in the first place.

  Last month, Burr had anonymously rounded us up and wanted the group to meet on the last Friday of every month—to stay on top of things.

  “I was hoping this would be a quick meet and greet,” Burr said with a cough. “But it seems like we can’t catch a break. Pardon the pun!”

  “Is there another one of those shirt holes?” Vixen asked, rolling her eyes. She thought this was all one big pain in the ass yet had decided to stick around. Personally, I thought she was just nosy and wanted to stay in the loop to better her own werewolf hunting.

  “No, no, thank the Patch Gods we don’t have to deal with another one of those problems.” He laughed, the resonance echoing up and down the stairs. “If we had another tear so close together, we’d be at risk of total collapse. Even we can’t keep everything safe if something that dire strikes.”

  “What’s the problem then?” Conrad said, eyeing Vixen’s ass. Ebony whacked him in the chest. “Ow.”

  “I’m afraid this is caused by what you people refer to as science.”

  “Care to elaborate?” Oren encouraged, turning his hands over in what had now become a familiar hand motion for get to the point.

  “Of course,” Burr answered, nodding madly. His multiple chins wobbled. Was it just me, or had he put on a little more weight? “What I mean is that someone’s trying to pierce a pathway to a specific patch.”

  “Isn’t that the same as tearing it?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “No, no, it isn’t. See, this is very specific.” Burr’s beady eyes were on mine. “Someone is interfering with the natural order of things by trying to affect the energy flow into a particular patch. By doing this, they can eventually affect it both ways.”

  “I don’t get it,” Ebony said, wrapping an arm around Conrad’s waist.

  “Of course, I’ll explain.” Burr flashed a fake, impatient smile. “If someone tries to control the input into a particular patch, one which is meant to receive this input naturally, they can use that control and turn it into energy. Eventually, the energy will cause the pathway to travel both ways, giving access to this patch without causing any tears or punctures anywhere else, just the natural flow of everything around it.”

  My pulse quickened. I had a feeling this was once again connected to me.

  “Where’s it coming from?” Jonathan asked.

  I glanced at him, but he didn’t even notice me. He seemed intent on getting his answer from Burr.

  “Whoever is doing this is trying to access the ghostly patch,” Burr finally answered.

  I didn’t turn to look at anyone else but him. Still, I could feel the other hunters’ eyes on me. Maybe I could get some answers from Burr without having to stay behind any longer than was necessary.

  I cleared my throat. “I’ll take care of it.”

  Burr raised a pudgy hand in front of him. “Oh, goodness, I didn’t mean for you to assume I was putting the blame on you, or was here to cause you any more problems than you already have on your plate. I simply wanted to discuss this with everyone, because like before, it affects all of us.”

  “You said this is taking place in the ghostly patch. That’s got nothing to do with me,” Conrad was quick to say. Ebony whacked his arm a second time. “What was that for, babe?”

  “I deal with the ghostly patch, you idiot!”

  “Oh yeah, you do.” He smiled at her, and then quickly glared my way. Vamp Boy and I didn’t like each other. Not even his involvement with Ebony was enough to make us friends, though I knew she wanted us to at least try to get along.

  I met Ebony’s eyes from across the room and noticed she was already freaked out. She might not know about Mara, but she’d been in the office when Mrs. Wicker flickered and faded.

  “What do you want us to do?” Oren asked. He stood between Vixen and Jonathan. Like me, he had some idea of what was stirring at the Spook Catcher Council—as well as in the hospital—so any information we could get a hold of might help us get closer to a solution.

  “I need all of you to be on alert,” Burr answered. He pulled out a handkerchief from the inside of his black jacket and dabbed at his forehead. “We’ve tried pinpointing the exact location, but it disappears every time we get near it. We do, however, believe it’s happening somewhere in this city.”

  As much as I wanted to learn more about what we were up against, I didn’t want anyone else involved. Especially Jonathan.

  “Oren, Ebony and I will look into it,” I said with a nod. “Was there anything else we needed to discuss?” I could feel everyone looking my way again, and like before turned my focus away from them.

  “Yes, yes, good idea…” For the next hour, Burr Okell updated the group about what the Patch Watchdogs were up to at the moment—ensuring all the patches stayed within their designated spots, making sure any small tears were dealt with instantly, that no stitches were left undone—and encouraged us to be vigilant about any subtle changes.

  I listened to most of what he had to say, but was mentally sorting what I’d been through during the last few days. The Council was definitely up to something, and if the Patch Watchdogs had noticed an unnatural and forceful flow of energy into the ghostly patch, the Council had to be packing some heavy arsenal. Coupled with what was happening to Mara, what Roe had told us and the dowsing leading right to the top of their Tower, I was convinced spook catchers were being used as conduits to control this energy flow. But I wasn’t sure how or why.

  In Mara’s vision, she’d been strapped to some sort of chair contraption before her body completely separated from her spirit. And now she attracted spirits like a magnet, without having any control over it.

  When Mrs. Wicker mentioned a constant presence following her just before she disappeared, I’d assumed shadows were responsible. But then the ghost girl in the hospital couldn’t ignore the call from Mara’s room.

  How did the attack on me fit into all of this? Was it an isolated incident, or did it bring everything together?

  I had to speak to Oren about this, to see what he thought.

  “Good, then we can wrap up our third successful meeting,” Burr said so loudly he pulled me out of my deep and very dark thoughts. “You all need to be extra careful and aware of what’s going on around you, and let me know if you feel or see something odd. Okay?” He didn’t wait for anyone’s response. Instead, he turned his bulky body around and made his way down the stairs, his small feet thumping beneath him. “Until next month!”

  He disappeared into thin air before any of us could respond
.

  “It’s so freaky when he does that, isn’t it?” Lavie said as she stepped up beside me.

  I looked at her and nodded. Her big eyes looked innocent in her freckled face. It was sometimes hard to believe she was an actual demon hunter because she looked like an aloof, uncoordinated woman who also seemed a lot younger than she was. I’d worked with her on the Hocking case and had kept in touch with her since. We were fast becoming good friends, and Ebony liked her too.

  It’s why her behavior around Jonathan set off so many alarm bells.

  Speak of the devil—he appeared on my other side. “Can I speak to you for a sec?”

  Lavie looped her arm around mine and yanked me away from him. “Sorry, we’ve got something we need to do right now.”

  Jonathan looked confused but I didn’t mind. I was actually grateful because it meant I didn’t have to deal with him right now. Tomorrow, I’ll deal with him then.

  “I’ll pop by the bookstore tomorrow morning, okay?”

  He nodded but the look he gave me was hard and dark. His shadow expanded behind him and I turned to see if Lavie had noticed. By the expression on her face and the shine in her eyes, I was sure she had.

  “You don’t mind getting a cup of coffee, do you?” Lavie asked after we’d said our goodbyes to everyone and descended the stairs together. She still had her arm hooked around mine.

  “I never say no to coffee.” I made sure Ebony was leaving with Conrad, who said he was taking her to a new club in town, and told Oren he could drop in the next day whenever he had a chance. I also exchanged the usual and very mutual, distrustful looks Vixen and I had adopted as way of communication.

  “Good, because we need to talk more about what I told you before,” Lavie said with a somber smile. “I’ve been dying to mention it to you for a few weeks now.”

  We were settled inside what had now become our late-night hangout, Monster Coffee Break. It might be close to two in the morning, but this diner seemed to appeal to the odd-hours crowd.

  Lavie and I had come there the first time we met, when I’d quizzed her about the possibility of demons disguising themselves as poltergeists. Back then, I’d had no idea about anything. There was still a lot I needed to learn, but compared to last month, I now knew a lot more about the undercurrents in our world.

  I peered at her backpack, sitting faithfully beside her on the booth. “So, what have you got in there this time?” I took a small sip of my coffee. Not as good as Ebony made it, but it was growing on me.

  “Just a couple of hands,” Lavie answered, as if it was the most common thing in the world to carry around. She grinned and sucked some of her milkshake through the pink straw in front of her.

  I lowered my coffee cup before I dropped it. “Are you serious?”

  I’d been joking. I really hadn’t expected her to confirm she was in fact carrying any demonic, severed body parts.

  “Of course,” she said.

  How could someone who carried demonic limbs in her backpack appear so innocent? Her red, choppy hair barely reached her shoulders and hung around her moon-shaped face. Her hazel eyes looked too big for her face and always seemed to twinkle, like a character in a Disney movie. She was cute, rather than pretty. She always wore long sleeves, and dresses, or pants, lengthy enough to cover her legs.

  Lavie had several demonic seeds travelling beneath her skin and made sure they were permanently hidden beneath her clothes. She’d contracted an unfortunate sexually transmitted disease long ago, and still hadn’t figured out how to get rid of it. I hoped to help her one day.

  “What are you going to do with the hands?” I asked.

  Lavie leaned forward and lowered her voice. “Demonic hands can fetch heaps of money. Lots of people like to use them as a stronger, more potent Hand of Glory. It’s very popular with witches. In fact, the two I have here are for your friend, Oren McKee. He requested them several weeks ago but it took me this long to actually hunt down the particular demon he was after.” She sighed, sitting back again. “It’s hard enough finding an appropriate human hand, but with demons, not only does it have to be a demon that killed with its bare hands…it’s also a particular breed. They like to hang around the seedier part of town, trying to pass themselves off as drug dealers and pimps. It took some planning to get these. Do you want to see them?”

  “No, thanks, I’ll take your word for it.” I swallowed the lump in my throat.

  “If you’re sure…” She obviously wanted to show me but I wasn’t going to budge. She’d already hinted—several times—about us doing a sort of exchange-tutoring thing where I accompanied her during one of her sewer-hunting stints, and then took her on one of my spook-catching rounds.

  She wouldn’t see much with me, but I had to admit I was curious about her bit. But right now, the way things were with spooks, the Council, and the catchers, I didn’t particularly want to involve anyone else and make them a possible target.

  “I’m positive.” I reinforced it with a nod. “So, there are a lot of different types of demons, huh?” Maybe we’d finally discuss Jonathan now.

  “There sure are—some corporeal, some incorporeal. There are minions and lords, lots of nasty stuff that can be conjured and used for gain. As well as others who haunt people’s dreams, or possess them. They’re the hardest to get rid of, and most of the time even harder to spot. It’s why I need to speak to you.”

  “You need my help with finding one of these demons?”

  “Not exactly, I think I’ve already found one…but you’re not going to like what I’ve got to say, because it’s about your boyfriend.” She avoided my eyes.

  With the amount of people who referred to both Jonathan and Papan as my boyfriend, I wasn’t sure who she meant.

  “Are you talking about Jonathan?” It had to be him. She hadn’t even met Papan. She hadn’t visited my house yet, and he’d never been in the office when she came to ours.

  She nodded, polishing off the rest of her strawberry milkshake with a loud sucking sound. “I don’t want to scare you, or sound like I’m interfering in your personal business, but like I told you before, there’s something not quite right about him.”

  The elongated shadow, the mysterious phone calls, his knowing Troy and then lying about him going back to Europe, not to mention his odd and overly jealous behavior, all played through my mind in an endless loop. I knew something was amiss about him but I never thought it was serious or dark enough to attract the attention of a person who hunted demons for a living.

  “What do you mean?” Better to play this out like I would a clairvoyant, by giving away as little about what I knew as possible. Let her tell me what she suspected, rather than drop my own suspicions in her lap.

  “Well, it’s hard to explain.” Lavie toyed with her straw as she stared into space, almost like she was reading off a checklist.

  “You said he was a…demon.” It sounded strange to say it out loud. How could I not have noticed he was demonic? Then again, the signs had been there for a while now. Why else would I have slipped into the dark patch several times with him? Denial was no longer an option.

  “Well, not exactly a demon.” Lavie sighed. “There’s something weird about his aura.”

  “You can read auras?”

  “Not read them as much as I can feel when a demonic aura has touched someone, or is actually living within them.” Lavie twirled the straw around the bottom of her empty glass. “Sometimes they can piggyback a person without them even knowing, which could possibly be what’s going on with him.”

  “Are you saying Jonathan is possessed?”

  She shook her head. “I didn’t say that exactly, but he has definitely come into some sort of contact with a demon lately. It might be hovering around him or trying to find its way into his psyche. I don’t know for sure unless I look into it. Like I said, he might not even have a clue this is happening to him.”

  “How do you look into it?” And when had Jonathan been exposed to demonic act
ivity? A sense of dread trickled down the base of my spine.

  “I’d have to get him into a protective circle and perform a ritual to find out which demon is hovering around him,” she answered, lost in thought. “For all I know, it could already have taken over. He seems very violent and acts like the demonic.”

  “He has been acting more…volatile lately.”

  “Either way, I’ve got several other smaller things I can do to test my theory.”

  “Do you need my help?”

  “No, I can manage on my own. I know he owns a bookshop in the city and I’m always in need of a new, dusty tome, so I’ll surprise him one of these days.” She dropped the straw and looked up. “You should stay away from him, though. He seems to lose his grip a lot more when you’re around.”

  “Lavie, I need to tell you something I haven’t mentioned to anyone else yet. Can you promise to keep it to yourself?” Well, except for Papan. He knew because he was there at the time.

  She sat forward. “I love secrets, and I’m like a vault. I’ll never tell a single, living soul. You can trust me.”

  “Okay.” I licked my lips. “I broke up with him the other day, but he keeps trying to gloss over it. I’m going to his bookstore tomorrow, or later today since it’s already past midnight, to make sure he gets the message.”

  “I think it’s for the best,” she said with a nod. “But you shouldn’t go alone. Just in case.”

  “Would you like to come with me?” It made sense. “That way you can try and zone in on whatever’s going on with him, and I’ll have backup.”

  “That sounds great!”

  “Lavie, is that why he has a physical effect on you?”

  “So you’ve noticed, huh?”

  “It’s hard to miss. You always take a step back when he gets anywhere near you. You also seemed pretty freaked out tonight,” I said.

  “That’s because I saw his shadow.”

  My heart stopped for a second.

  “It’s the freakiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

  I nodded.

  “Listen, I better get home before my aunt starts to worry. Besides, I have to prepare these demon hands for Oren. He has some very specific instructions.” She started sliding out of the booth. “Your secret’s safe with me, but you need to be careful. If he does have a demon shadowing or possessing him, you have to make sure it doesn’t get agitated enough to make him act out against you.”